This invention relates to a method for stuffing meat product sealed by stapling and a related device to carry out the method.
The process followed up to now for stuffing meat product consisted, first, in conditioning the meat product to provide it with desired physical, organoleptic and sanitary characteristics. This conditioning generally includes chopping it or breaking it up into pieces until reducing it to lumps having a variable size according to the product it is desired to obtain. Thereafter, by means of a suitable apparatus, a continuous flow of broken up pieces of meat product are introduced into an endless sleeve which has a first end previously sealed by means of a staple, so that a continuous section of stuffed meat product is produced. Then, the continuous section of stuffed meat product is reduced in cross-section at regular intervals by means of first and second slightly spaced staples. With said stapling a continuous strip of stuffed meat product elements is obtained in a sleeve, sealed by stapling, linked to each other by a portion of sleeve existing between said first and said second staples close to each other. Finally, the sleeve is cut at the portion thereof located between said first and second staples, obtaining in that way individual, separate elements of meat product stuffed within a portion of sleeve sealed at both ends with staples.
In the state of the art, equipment and devices to carry out stuffing of meat product according to the above disclosed method are known, and one mentioned in Spanish Patent Application nxc2x0 9702538 of the same applicant, in which a machine for stuffing meat product is disclosed which comprises a hopper for receiving already conditioned meat product, within which two pistons are acting to remove and push said meat product to let the meat product pass through a rotating valve, synchronized with the motion of the pistons so that a continuous flow of meat product is produced through a stuffing duct open at one end, in order that the meat product is stuffed at the same time as it moves in an endless sleeve which has been previously arranged and corrugated in said stuffing duct with a first end sealed by means of a staple.
Also machines are known for reducing cross section at regular intervals in a continuous sleeve stuffed with meat product by means of a double staple, i.e., first and second staples close to each other, and cutting the portion of the sleeve which remains located between two adjacent staples to produce individual portions of stuffed meat product sealed with staples. Examples of this type of machine are found in EP-0247546 and EP-0399195.
Usually, a stuffing facility comprises a stapling machine installed close to the outlet of the stuffing machine.
The problem of the method and the devices of the state of the art is that reduction of the continuous section of stuffed meat product by means of two adjacent staples has insufficient strength to cut the fibers of the meat product, namely in the event that the meat product has a particular hardness or is broken into pieces with a relatively large size in a lump, so that the individual pieces of sausages which result after cutting the portion of sleeve between two adjacent staples show portions or lumps of meat not fully cut which are seen at the staples, which could not be fully sealed because of those portions being present. This causes the pieces obtained to be unacceptable for obvious sanitary reasons and cannot be presented to the public. The portions of meat in contact with the external environment can be rotten and contaminate the meat within the sausage. Also when the meat product is finely chopped, a problem arises because portions thereof can be left in the portion of the sleeve between two adjacent staples which will remain exposed to the external environment after cutting said portion of sleeve, which can produce a bad smell.
EP-A-847695 discloses a method (basically also revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,434) and a corresponding device for stuffing a meat product sealed by stapling.
However the device disclosed in EP-A-847695 includes a knife blade 17 driven in rotation, which implies the use of hydromotor or a pneumaticaly driven motor leading to a troublesome assembly, which is avoided in the device of the present invention.
This invention provides a new method to stuff meat product sealed by a staple which brings a solution to these problems.
This invention also provides a device to carry out said method.
The new method essentially consists in introducing a new step in the conventional stuffing process which consists in cutting at regular intervals said continuous flow of meat product before introducing it in said endless sleeve, having said intervals of cutting coincident with the further reduced intervals by means of a double staple.
The cut carried out in the meat continuous flow produces adjacent portions of meat product flow which move jointly within the stuffing duct which push each other. The existence of said cut creates a lack of cohesion between a portion of the meat product flow and ist preceding one which causes at the moment of chocking, that both portions are separated from each other, sliding within the sleeve, leaving the portion of sleeve between two adjacent staples clean and clear.
This is achieved, according to this invention, by means of a new trimming device which may be installed interposed between a conventional stuffing machine and a conventional stapling machine.
The new trimming device comprises an enclosure intercalated in the duct of the meat product continuous flow, which provides a passageway for it and a guide for a cross cutting blade which has access to the enclosure through a passageway which remains closed by the cutting blade itself. Said enclosure has available means which comprise it allowing the eventual opening thereof. Also driving means for said cutting blade and suitable supporting means are provided.